Nets Are Scorching

Adrian Wojnarowski brings the news again, this time from his twitter feed:

New Jersey has finalized a three-year, $12 million agreement with Lakers free agent guard Jordan Farmar, a league source tells Y!

I am putting together my thoughts on this for a post tomorrow, but the initial reaction is that I like it.  I liked Felton more, but it was obvious that he wanted to start (and he wanted starter money).  The Farmar deal is reasonable to me, and his athletic ability fits into how the Nets are currently building their roster (defend and get in transition).  With Farmar being coached by Avery Johnson, he could be a solid defender.  This is an open thread to get you until tomorrow morning…feel free to discuss this move and other rumored moves.

In the fifth and final game of summer league, the Nets enjoyed their easiest victory yet, securing a winning record by defeating a depleted Boston Celtics roster 86-68. Despite Luke Harangody’s excellent play (18 points & 8 rebounds) and the absence of Damion James and Terrence Williams (who sat for the game after a short stint in the first), the Nets had a great all-around game from start to finish. Many of the role players played well – Jakim Donaldson was active all game and finished with 15 points on 5-6 shooting from both the field and the line, Brandon Heath showed off an impressive touch, and Connor Atchley attacked the boards – this fifth summer league game was won because of the excellent play of the guy we’ve all been waiting for to break out: Derrick Favors. Let’s see what it was he did so well.

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The Nets have made three signings (two signings and one offer sheet to be exact, but we will count all three as if they sign with the Nets for purpose of this discussion) over the past week.  This obviously means that the amount of money the Nets have in terms of cap space has decreased.  I think now is a good time to look at where we stand, so we can see what moves are available moving forward:

Numbers from the great site ShamSports.com

* – The $500,000 attributed to Keyon Dooling is the guaranteed portion of his contract.  $500,000 of his 2010 salary was guaranteed, so if he was cut (which is what happened) he gets paid that amount and it goes against the Nets cap.

** – The rookies aren’t signed yet, this is just 100% of the cap hold attributed to their draft slot.

*** – Unlike the Outlaw deal (which has been announced at a $7,000,000 flat per year basis) the per year figures for these two deals hasn’t come out yet.  Just divided the total amount by the total years to get a close enough estimate.

Alright, so as everything stands right now, the Nets are currently sitting with right around $19,500,000 in salary they can offer for this upcoming season.  What we heard from Chad Ford is that they don’t plan on spending all of it:

The Nets plan to use about $20 million of their $30 million in cap space this summer. The plan is to hang on to the other $10 million to use as an asset for in-season trades (they way the Thunder have masterfully done the past two years) and, if nothing materializes, roll the cap space over to the 2011 season.

If this report is true, the Nets plan on spending about another $10 million while holding onto the rest.  This could change though, especially if the Nets want to make an offer on a guy like Luis Scola.  The only way the Nets can get him is if they make an offer of something like $13 or $14 million a year (and even then, it isn’t a guarantee that the Rockets don’t match).  That deal would also still leave them with around $5 million for in season moves, and give them some cap room to carry over into next year.  I think this will be the move we hear about next.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski (who by the way is a must follow during the offseason) the Nets have come to an agreement with big man Johan Petro:

Center Johan Petro has reached agreement on a three year, $10 million deal with New Jersey, league sources tell Y!.

Ugh.  This is the first head-scratcher in my opinion.  Petro is obviously coming in to be Brook’s backup (and he is a good backup at that), but at $3.3 million per year (also 3 years?!?!)?  Even in an offseason where everyone is getting overpaid, that is way too much.  The Nets also know have four post players in Brook, Petro, Favors, and Hump.  Hopefully this isn’t what we are entering the season with because as of right now we don’t have a starting quality PF.

With that being said, this isn’t reason to go crazy and panic.  Overpaying for a guy like Petro sucks, no question, but it isn’t like the Nets spent their final $3.3 million on him.  Yes, I realize I am rationalizing right now…

After signing Travis Outlaw, the Nets aren’t done collecting wing players.  They have now turned their attention to Warriors’ restricted free agent Anthony Morrow.  Morrow and the Nets agreed to a deal that would play the undrafted wing player $12 million over the course of three years, according to Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

This is a real good deal for the Nets because it is a reasonable amount of money for a sharpshooting wing.  However, it is so reasonable that I think the Warriors have a good chance of matching it.  Wojnarowski says that’s not the case:

The Golden State Warriors aren’t expected to match the offer, a league source said. They have seven days to make a decision after Morrow officially signs the sheet.

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With the franchise in financial flux because of an impending sale and having just committed $80 million to forward David Lee(notes), the Warriors aren’t expected to spend to keep Morrow.

I will eagerly be counting down the days.  I personally think that the Warriors “shrugging off” of Marrow could be a smokescreen.  This is because if teams know a restricted free agent will have his offer matched, they will just jack up the offers forcing teams to pay big if they want to keep their guy.  The Nets could have signed Morrow to a good deal thinking that the Warriors won’t match, just to have the Warriors turn around and match it (This is kind of what happened with Marcin Gortat last year).

As what this signing would mean for the Nets, I don’t want to get too much into it in case the Warriors do match, but this works.  Morrow is a sharpshooter that will spread the court and keep teams honest (no more zone with Morrow on the court).  Also, this signing tells me one of two things.  Either that the Nets are comfortable enough using Terrence Williams as a backup point guard with Outlaw and Morrow on the wings, or the Nets are loading up on wings because they are looking to deal one or two of them.  In my opinion (just my opinion, I have no sources) the latter is more than likely the case.  The Nets now will have Terrence Williams, Damion James, Travis Outlaw, Anthony Morrow, and Courtney Lee on their roster as wing players.  All five of these guys seem like they can come in and contribute right away, but there doesn’t seem to be enough time for all of them.  All five of these guys have pretty good contracts (with 3 of the 5 still on their rookie deal), so that is a lot of attractive assets the Nets could include in a trade.

However, we might be getting ahead of ourselves.  Hopefully we can revisit this in seven days…

The Nets got smoked in a game against the Jazz yesterday, and it was a pretty unexciting blowout.  Damion James hurt his wrist/hand/thumb, so we might not see him suit up in the final game, but here is a quick recap of the events that took place.

Terrence Williams

It was a sloppy game with nobody really wanting to step up offensively for the Nets, and this lead to Terrence Williams getting shot happy.  He took 20 attempts, but hit 10 of them going for 23 points.  One of his makes was another monster dunk:

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Obviously, this is a New Jersey Nets blog, however, the NAS crew absolutely love the NBA in general. So, every week, Sebastian, Mark, Devin, and myself will answer questions regarding the L.

Hey NAS readers, thanks for your support first of all.  Second, everything will be okay.  Finally, breathe.  In any case, it’s been awhile since the last NORT went up on here, but we had more important things to worry about, such as pondering why only the first two-thirds of Stripes is so good and the last third so boring in comparison?  Same sort of goes for Full Metal Jacket, except with the first segment in basic training versus the rest of it.  Oh, and there was also the NBA Draft and Free Agency that had to put NORT on the backshelf.  However, we’re back!

1) Thoughts on the Amar’e Stoudemire signing with the New York Knicks?

Sebastian: While Amar’e is on two bad knees with a bad eye, I think this is a decent signing.  Before the Amar’e signing, the Knicks had Danilo Gallinari and that is about it.  Amar’e brings star power and pairing him with a guy like Anthony Randolph will make the Knicks so fun to watch.  Not saying they are going to make the playoffs, but with coach Mike D’Antoni running the squad, it’s going to be interesting.

I also like the Stoudemire signing because it kept the Nets from signing him.  Stoudemire and Lopez together on defense is too much of a liability, and I think the Nets have a good enough core where they didn’t need to give Amar’e the max to be competitive. Read more…

So who needed that LeBron guy anyway?

Now that all of the big name free agents are off the board, the Nets can get back to doing what they were supposed to be doing in the first place: rebuilding a roster. I understand that names like Travis Outlaw and Kyle Korver are not sexy choices, but they’re not bad building blocks either. All playoff contenders have good role-players like an Outlaw and Korver. Where the Nets lack right now is star power, but with some of the pieces that are already in place, maybe that point is overstated as well.

Obviously, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed in how  the Nets struck out with the “big guns.” A LeBron-Bosh duo is the stuff dreams are made of, and while he has his flaws, I’ve always been bullish on David Lee and thought he could make for a scary three-man rotation frontcourt with Brook Lopez and Derrick Favors. But just because the Nets missed out on these players doesn’t mean they’re doomed to repeat as 12-win also-rans. If you remember the circumstances behind last year – an injury decimated roster in November followed by a clueless head coach in Kiki Vandweghe is an easy recipe for disaster. With new ownership that’s willing to spend, a new coach, new draft picks, and a stronger, more well-rounded bench that’s not overstuffed with expiring contracts, there’s no reason to believe this coming season will mirror last season. It’s also worth noting, HOW the Nets are rebuilding. As noted by ESPN’s Chad Ford yesterday, by spending about $20-$30 million this summer and leaving about $10 million for midseason acquisitions, the Nets are following a blueprint drawn up by the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team that’s evolving into a force in the Western Conference, all through this kind of intelligent roster building.

I think if we all sit down, take a deep breath, and think long and hard about the past year, we would realize that this team is right where we expected them to be. Brining LeBron and Bosh to New Jersey was always the longest of long shots, given the competition. Amare Stoudemire and Carlos Boozer do not have project to be good long-term contracts. Rudy Gay and Joe Johnson are not max players.  So why should we lose face because our best option was never realistic and the Plan B’s were all rolls of the dice?

Perhaps, many of us were caught up in the way the Nets have been selling themselves the past week. The swagger, the taunting billboards, the “leaks” of information from negotiations… maybe it all created a false sense of accomplishment. They always tell a fighter not to lead with the chin, and Team Prokhorov has certainly put it all out there, inviting a backlash. But personally, after the past six years of Bruce Ratner’s focus on real estate, rather than basketball, I welcome an owner who’s willing to take calculated risks and not be ashamed if they don’t hit the bullseye when it comes to assembling a roster.

With or without the big free agents, we are entering a new era with this organization, Nets fans. Remember, Prokhorov spoke of a five-year, not a five-week plan. Let’s also remember that there’s more to roster building than just bidding on the best guys. There may not be playoffs next season. But who knows. After watching the 2008-09 season, would you have predicted the Thunder would give the Lakers a major run for their money in the playoffs last year? It’s going to take time, but the Nets have plenty of it – or at least five years.